y the same
qualities of cool, unerring judgment, far-reaching sagacity, and
apparently superhuman power of organizing, combining, and controlling,
which had made him in politics the phenomenon of the age.

About Dr. Rapperschwyll? Yes, the countess knew him by reputation
and by sight. He was the medical man in constant attendance upon
the Baron Savitch, whose high-strung mental organization rendered
him susceptible to sudden and alarming attacks of illness. Dr.
Rapperschwyll was a Swiss--had originally been a watchmaker or
artisan of some kind, she had heard. For the rest, he was a
commonplace little old man, devoted to his profession and to the
Baron, and evidently devoid of ambition, since he wholly neglected
to turn the opportunities of his position and connections to the
advancement of his personal fortunes.

Fortified with this information, Fisher felt better prepared to
grapple with Rapperschwyll for the possession of the secret. For five
days he lay in wait for the Swiss physician. On the sixth day the
desired opportunity unexpectedly presented itself.

Half way up the Mercuriusberg, late in the afternoon, he encountered
the custodian of the ruined tower, coming down. "No, the tower was not
closed. A gentleman was up there, making observations of the country,
and he, the custodian, would be back in an hour or two." So Fisher
kept on his way.

The upper part of this tower is in a dilapidated condition. The lack
of a stairway to the summit is supplied by a temporary wooden ladder.
Fisher's head and shoulders were hardly through the trap that opens to
the platform, before he discovered that the man already there was the
man whom he sought. Dr. Rapperschwyll was studying the topography of
the Black Forest through a pair of field glasses.

Fisher announced his arrival by an opportune stumble and a noisy
effort to recover himself, at the same instant aiming a stealthy kick
at the topmost round of the ladder, and scrambling ostentatiously
over the edge of the trap. The ladder went down thirty or forty feet
with a racket, clattering and banging against the walls of the tower.

Dr. Rapperschwyll at once appreciated the situation. He turned sharply
around, and remarked with a sneer, "Monsieur is unaccountably
awkward." Then he scowled and showed his teeth, for he recognized
Fisher.

"It _is_ rather unfortunate," said the New Yorker, with imperturbable
coolness. "We shall be imprisoned here a couple of hours at the